Shared Island Civic Society Fund
Overview
What is the Shared Island Civic Society Fund?
The Shared Island Civic Society Fund is an initiative to promote practical North-South cooperation and engagement through increased cross-border civic society connections.
The Shared Island initiative is a whole-of-government priority which aims to harness the full potential of the Good Friday Agreement to enhance on-the-ground cooperation, connection, and mutual understanding on the island and engage with all communities and traditions to build consensus around a shared future.
The Shared Island Civic Society Fund has entered a second, three-year, phase, running from 2025 to 2027, with increased resourcing to support enhanced island-wide societal connection, cooperation and mutual understanding.
The fund has been allocated a budget of €6m over the 2025-2027 period, funded both by the Shared Island Initiative and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. This means that there will now be €2 million available each year for disbursement by way of grant funding to eligible organisations.
Average grant of just under €30,000
Principles of the fund
The Shared Island Civic Society Fund seeks to ensure that funding is not a barrier to cross border engagement. It encourages and supports civic society and community organisations to develop new cross-border links, to further strengthen existing partnerships, or to create or broaden cross-border connectivity on issues of concern for the island of Ireland.
Who should apply to the fund
Consistent with the objectives of the Shared Island Civic Society Fund:
- Applications are sought which will foster sustained engagement between civic society organisations at a regional, national or sectoral level as distinct from stand-alone events or engagements.
- Applications are invited from civic societies, business and trade union representative groups and other regional or national representative bodies, including of underrepresented voices of women, young people, older people, ethnic minorities, and LGBTQI+
- Applications are particularly welcomed in the areas of:
- Environment
- Women
- Youth
- Migrants
- Community/Voluntary sector
- Trade Unions, Business, and Social Enterprise
This is not an exhaustive list and the Shared Island Civic Society Fund will review all applications in line with their assessment criteria
What they look for in projects
To qualify for funding, projects must have a strong North South dimension.
Applicants will be asked to demonstrate how their proposed project will do one or more of the following:
- Deepen North South links through the development of sustainable cross-border civic relationships;
- Develop and/or deepen cross-border relations between civic society organisations, North and South;
- Promote constructive and inclusive dialogue around the opportunities and challenges facing the island through cross-border and cross-community engagement;
- Contribute significantly to the development of an all-island civic society ecosystem, particularly in relation to areas of cooperation and fundamental rights provided for under the Good Friday Agreement;
- Adopts an innovative or novel approach to building North South relations.
Eligibility criteria for assessment
The following eligibility criteria apply:
- Applications must demonstrate a clear partnership between at least one organisation based in the South and at least one organisation based in the North, or must be from an all island body;
- Funding will not be awarded to cover standalone activities that are not part of a wider project/programme
- Only direct project/programme work will be eligible for funding and grants will not be awarded to cover core operational or capital costs;
- An organisation may only make one application for funding as a lead organisation per round;
- Organisations already in receipt of funding from the Department of Foreign Affairs and other Government Departments/public bodies are eligible to apply for this fund, although activities supported must be distinct from those being supported by other Government funding schemes;
- Organisations who have received funding from previous rounds of the Shared Island Civic Society Fund and have not submitted all relevant reports from those previous rounds are not eligible to apply to subsequent rounds.
To be eligible an application organisation must also demonstrate
- What the project/programme outcomes are and how they align with the fund’s objectives;
- The impact of the project/programme North and South based on clear expected outputs and outcomes;
- The capacity of the application organisation to deliver the outcomes set out in the project;
- The organisation’s financial management capacity;
- The organisation’s governance arrangements;
- The organisation’s monitoring and evaluation systems;
- The organisation’s financial stability and sustainability.
In addition to the above eligibility requirements, applications will be strengthened by the inclusion of funding contributions to the proposed project from the participating partner organisations.
Previous Awards
Funding was awarded to 107 projects in 2023 and 2024 through this Fund, across a broad range of sectors and themes, including in the areas of climate/environment, community development, heritage, social enterprise, charity/voluntary, and sports. Each of these projects has a strong North-South dimension and will facilitate the development of new cross-border links, the strengthening of existing relationships, or the broadening of North-South connectivity on issues of common concern for civic society groups on both sides of the border.
Tánaiste announces new round of funding for cross-border projects